What It Takes to Be Strong
by MrMoho
Summary: A young Buneary finds herself doubting her own strength, clouding her dreams of becoming a great adventurer. However, new friends might be able to show her just how strong she really is. A Story inspired by Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. Reviews are much appreciated.
1. Chapter 1: The little Hopes of big Dream

**Chapter 1**

**The little Hopes of big Dreamers**

A storm was rampaging so hard one might think the sky was about to fall down and destroy the world. The mangled clouds seethed awesome, their pitch black color covering the night sky, forbidding any light to shine onto the earth. The rain was gushing from the heavens, flooding the ground and the wind raging so intensely that not even the trees were able to withstand its wrath.

He was running as fast as he could, but he didn't knew why. Someone was holding his hand, begging him to hold on to it, begging him to keep running.

What was he running from? Where was he running to? His feet felt so sore as if he hadn't rested them for days and his heart was beating so powerful inside his chest that every beat shot a stinging pain through his exhausted body.

The million droplets of water that fell from the sky hindered his vision. The only thing that he was able to make out was the orange paw that held tightly onto his own. It dragged on him so strong that it was practically carrying him.

Even if he wanted to stop and rest his tired body he was sure the paw wouldn't let him and he somehow felt that this was a good thing. He was scared. He didn't knew what was chasing them but he was sure that he did not wanted to get caught by it.

So he ran, no matter how weak he was. He kept running and running, holding tighter to the paw that helped him with this task. The paw made him feel comfortable inside, no matter how much his body hurt on the outside. It gave him hope that he could escape whatever he was running from, enough confidence to keep on running.

Suddenly there was an explosion to his right. It hurled him into the air, separating him from the paw he was holding so dearly onto. All noises were replaced with that of a loud ringing, disorientating him even more then he already was.

Before he even knew it he was holding onto some rocks with no ground beneath his feet. The ringing slowly subsided and he could hear the rain and thunder again, as well as the sound of masses of water that slammed into something. The voice he heard earlier began plead and cry again for him to hold on, to not let go.

He wanted to follow the voices pleads, he wanted to hold on, not to give up, however, his body didn't obey his demands. He felt as his paws were slowly sliding of the rocks and then how cold wind was swishing up from underneath his body.

"NO!"

All sounds of the world were once more muted as his body got encased with water. Every time he tried to breath, his lung were filled with liquid, every time he tried to open his eyes they burned and the only thing he could see was darkness.

He didn't knew why he was running, he didn't knew from what he was running, were he was running, he didn't even knew who that voice was he was running with. He was tired, he couldn't think straight and the strange liquid around him was pulling and tearing at him more so than the paw earlier did. His mind drifted off as he finally couldn't fight anymore.

Darkness began to surround his mind and dulled all his senses. The pain of his body, his troubled mind, gone. The last thing he felt was a strange sensation of joy before everything got absorbed by the darkness.

* * *

"That should be enough Pecha Berries!" The cheerful voice of a Buneary resonated through the forest as she was placing a Pecha Berry into a basket she was carrying around with her. She examined the content of the basket. It was filled to the brim with all sorts of different colored berries that she has collected. Cheri, Oran, Chesto and now more than enough Pecha Berries overfilled the woven basket, making it so heavy that the Buneary had to carry it with both paws.

Her mother had asked her this morning to fetch some berries from the nearby forest for her. They owned a Berry Farm, so they usually weren't in the need of a lot of wild ones, however, a heavy storm that had raged yesterday through town ruined most of their berry trees. It even almost took the roof off of their house!

Her mother also had told her to not go to deep inside the forest because of the raising number of bad Pokémon lately. She would've complied and simply got some berries from the edge of the forest, but all the berry trees there had their contents already plucked, blown away or squashed and rendered useless from the heavy storm. The Buneary almost wanted head back empty pawed, but her inner adventurer had decided to take on the 'dangerous' forest.

These woods were far from dangerous. She and her mother often went in here to get some berries from the wild trees, so it wasn't like she was going to get lost in it. Furthermore, even if there were more bad Pokémon around, she was more than capable to avoid them neither was she afraid of them.

The Buneary joyfully hopped back out the woods, evading any puddles the storm had left on the ground. The last thing she needed was her mother smart mouth her for getting her fur dirty. The storm had drenched the entire forest in water which made the leaves of the trees and bushes sparkle beautifully in the sunlight. Even the berries she has picked were still moist from the dew.

A peculiar lovely looking bush caused her to stop. She followed a glistening drop of water slowly flowing down a leaf until it reached its tip were it clung desperately onto the very edge to not fall off. Eventually, the drop gave up and fell onto the ground were it disappeared inside the wet earth with a very quiet 'plop!'.

A smile grew on her face. When even a little bush like this can look so astonishing how would the rest of the world compete? Pictures of towering mountains, deep caves and even big city's formed in her mind. She always dreamed of seeing more of the world, exploring every nook and cranny until there was nothing left for her to see. Yes, one day she hoped to become a adventurer!

Her smile got suddenly replaced with a frown. Everyone told her that she couldn't, though. Her mother always told her that she was still way too young for such plans and the staff of the local Adventurer Secretarial always told her that she was too small and fragile without them even giving her the chance of proving herself! The staff also told her that she needed a team before even thinking of becoming a official adventurer. A sigh escaped her throat and her eyes wet up a bit .

"Is it my fault that nobody wants to be friends with me?" She muttered halfheartedly.

Of course, the adult Pokémon always greeted her jolly when she was doing some chores for her mother and called her one the most cheerful Pokémon in town, however she was really bad at making friends with other Pokémon her age. They always said that she acted like an adult, or her constant talk about adventurers got on their nerves. While she admitted she liked to lecture others when they did something stupid (even though she herself also sometimes did stupid things) she couldn't understand how somebody couldn't like talking about adventurers and their travels! Besides, she was confident she would be able to take on any challenge the staff of the Secretarial throw on her!

Her mind snapped back out of her daydreams when she remembered that she still had to deliver the berries she picked for her mother. She broke her vision free from the bush and continued with her walk back home. The dimming sky revealed that it was already getting a bit late, encouraging her to pick up the pace. She didn't wanted her mother to get needlessly worried.

Once she was out of the forest she stretched her little arms. She had collected a bit too many berries and her arm with which she mainly supported the basket was getting a bit sore. But the knowledge that she was probably getting a slice of sweet Mago Cake when she returned with all these berries rekindled her tired body. She finally was back on the road that led to Flow Town. It shouldn't take her very long now for her to get back home.

"Hey there, little girl. Where are you off too?" A sudden voice from behind her startled the Buneary, making yelp in surprised. When she turned to see whom voice it was she saw two Pokémon standing behind her. Where did they come from? She just came from there, so how did these two appear behind her so suddenly?

The one that just spoke to her looked like a purple cat with slitted, green eyes that stared at her with a sultry look that was accompanied with a similar smile. Next to her was a Pokèmon with pale purple skin that was made out of a bunch of balls that had been stuck together to vaguely resemble a scorpion that ended with little, though still very dangerous looking stingers.

"Yeah, yeah! Where yah goin'?" Said the weird Pokémon excited , it's tails stingers pointing at her intimidatingly.

She looked at the two purple Pokémon unsure. There was definitely something wrong with these two. "I- I'm heading to Flow Town..." She answered hesitant, despite her insecurity towards the purple pair.

"I see..." The cat began to eye the basket the Buneary was carrying around who subsequently tried to conceal its contents from the purple Pokémon's view by hiding it behind her back. ",and what might you carry around there with you?"

"Yeah, yeah! Whatcha' got there?"The bug hastily added.

The cat made a shushing noise to quiet down her companion but shortly after turned her attention back to the bunny Pokémon.

"That basket you are caring around with you looks awfully heavy." She said in a soothing tone. She was albeit incapable of hiding a little poisonous note within her voice, "Why don't you let us help out with that?"

"Yeah, yeah! Let us help ya!" This time the cat gave the bug a slap on the back of its head who in response led out a little yelp. It was now occupied with tending the spot where it got hit by rubbing it with its tail. Satisfied and sure that this would keep the purple bug quiet the cat drew its attention back to the bunny.

"N-no, I'm fine, really!" The Buneary nervously stuttered. Panic was slowly building up inside of her. She took a few steps backwards, however the cat and bug thing followed her closely.

"Oh, come on now, little girl, why won't you let yourself getting helped out by two nice strangers?" The cat's smile was beginning to look strained but she still kept her soothing voice as she closed in.

The bug perked back up again while still rubbing its head. "Yeah, yeah! Why dontcha let yah' self gettin' helped?"

The purple cat's expression turned into a angry glare as she looked down at the face of her companion and began to yell. "I swear, Skorupi, I told you before to shut it-!"

The bunny Pokémon took the opportunity of the yelling cat to run away from the two. Unfortunately though, the cat noticed her attempt of escape and with impressive reflexes was able to grab onto the Buneary's basket with her front paws.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?!" The cat screamed furiously, her face painted with anger as she tugged at the Buneary's basket.

"Let gooooo!" The bunny yelled back as she had a tug war with the cat. She shoved her flexible ears into the cats face to help her getting the upper hand in the duel over the basket, squashing the cats face into a weird grimace.

"Drat, the wimp's tougher than I thought. Help me Scorupi!"

The scorpion-like Pokémon looked a bit hurt by her harsh tone. "Yah' know, Pelly, I got an actual name..."

"Shut up and help me with this dweeb!" The Pokèmon called Pelly snapped at him, "And stop calling me Pelly in front of others!"

"Alrigh', alrigh'..."

The Scorupi walked over to the two struggling girls and began to wind up his tail. The Buneary was still too busy tearing at her basket for her to see the tail flying towards her eye. With a loud crunch she was send back a few feet, letting go of the basket, causing the cat to fall back over as well and scattering berries all over the muddy road.

She griped her right eye with her paws and let out a pain filled cry. It felt like a big rock was just thrown at her face at full speed! Little stars flew inside her throbbing head and she lost her orientation of the world around her. She wasn't even sure if she landed on her back or her belly-

"Bah, stupid brat! Because of you my fur is now ruined!" Pelly remarked as she lifted herself up from the dirt. She dusted her coat off as good as she could while walking over to the basket.

"My, my, that's an awful lot of berries. Where did a little girl like you got her paws on these?" Her sultry voice was back again as she picked up the basket.

The Buneary could only answer with a loud groan.

"Fine then, don't answer me." She let out a little chuckle, " But I'm sure those will give us a fair amount of Poké back at the Kecleon Market.

"N-no!" Despite the immense pain on her teary eye, the bunny gather all the strength left within her body and lunged forward from off the ground to grab onto one of the cats back legs, shaking it as intense as she could muster, just to get back her possessions somehow. She collected these berries fair and square and there was no way some stupid purple bullies would take them away from her!

"They're mine!" She screamed in a high, shrill voice, "Give them back!"

"H-hey! Let go of me, you pest!" Pelly said, surprised by the sudden attack. She was however able to get the Buneary off of her without much trouble by giving the bunny a well placed kick onto her jaw.

Another jolt of pain ran through the Buneary as she landed hard on her back. Her whole face was hurting now. She wasn't even able to describe the pain. It just hurt a lot! Over her burning pain in her face she felt how something lukewarm was creepily flowing down the edge of her mouth. Out of reflex she ran her muddy paw over the place where the warm sensation was tingling. Looking back at her paw she noticed how the mud on her paw was mixed with a red liquid afterward.

"Here, carry that, Scorupi." The cat demanded off the scorpion.

"Sure, sure, Pelly!" The Scorupi obeyed and took the basket with the tip of his ball-tail.

"I told you to stop calling me Pelly in front of others, you bug brain!"

"Sorry, sorry..."

The Buneary still squirmed with pain a little longer while the two purple Pokèmon left. Shortly after however, she was able to stand up again. For a while she looked in complete silence at the scene around her. She didn't even had any real expression on her face, just a dull, barely noticable frown. In that same silence she then began to pick up as many of the scattered berries as she could hold. The berries all had mud stuck to them and some of them even were squished.

Then, without even much of a thought, she continued her walk back home.

* * *

It took her a while to get near the village, far longer than it would have normally. It took her so long, in fact that the sun was glowing fiery red in the horizon. As she was slugging down the street in silence she noticed that she was walking by her favorite shore bit of the towns river. In her dulled mind she decided to pay it a visit.

It didn't took her long to reach the riverfront. The usually spotless bank was covered in algae, broken off branches, an old tree trunk, gravel mixed with dirt, even severed waterlilies and ripped out reeds. Because the river was generally very calm, plants like those could grew near and on it without much trouble, however, judging from the algae sticking to the trees, the storm from yesterday must have caused a flood, scattering all that rubble and dead plants around.

A odd shaped cyan rock especially took her attention that wasn't there the last time she visited this place. Algae and some waterlilies covered most of its surface, making it hard to notice any details. She wondered how something this big was able to be carried out of the river and swept onto the riverbank. This storm must have been a lot stronger than it purported!

Not really sure why she sat down right next to that strange rock. The cold and soft grass underneath her backside was much appreciated by her hurting body, helping her to at least relax a little bit.

The Buneary looked over the big, greenish-blue river that, despite the Storms worst attempts, kept its pristine beauty. Two Yanma buzzed about at the other end of the river, flying between the reeds, startling a few Finneon that quickly scattered away. In the distance a bird Pokémon chirped a lovely song while repairing it's ruined nest. The Buneary was amazed how it could keep up such a good mood despite its home lying in ruins. Watching over the river she could see the reflection of the sun, a giant circle twinkling on the surface, almost looking like a red moon on the murky water, illuminating the watery night sky with sparkling lights. This place was as beautiful as ever and no storm, matter how hard, could ever change that.

Out of the corner of her eye she was able to see her own reflection in the calm water. She decided to examine herself, much to her regret. She looked like an outright mess! Her fur was ruffled up and covered with patches of mud, on the left corner of her mouth was a smeared spot of red and her right eye was swollen to twice its normal size. Instinctively she patted her deformed eye, causing her to cringe every time her paw made contact with it. It would probably take days before she could properly see on it again! She should count herself lucky that the Scorupi didn't hit her with his stingers though, or else her eye would've probably looked even nastier...

Her whole body felt wobbly all of the sudden. She wanted to become a adventurer, she wanted to see all the beauty the world had to offer, but who was she kidding? There was no way that she could ever see more than just the woods around Flow Town and this shore.

Tears build up inside her eyes, making her hurt eye burn. When she isn't even able to fend off some stupid bullies then how did she expect to be able to become a adventurer? She was a dumb little weakling. Everybody else was right, there was no way she could ever become one.

She began to sob uncontrollably, her other eye now also blurry, though from her tears. Her dreams would never come true, she would never see the world and its wonders, never go on wild adventures that she could tell her mother about!

She lost grip of all the berries she was carrying, scattering them in the grass around her. Instead of picking them back up again she lifted her now free paws to her eyes, even laid her long ears over them. She sat there and cried for what felt like hours to her, not knowing nor caring how much longer her tears would flow down her cheeks.

The Buneary winced when she felt something hard and cold gently wiping away some of her tears below her left eye causing her sobs to calm down a little. When she looked up to see who just did that...

...she suddenly saw the cyan rock staring at her with two glowing squares.

She screamed out loud in surprise and crawled away a few paces on her back. When she reached a somewhat safe distance from the rock she froze and looked at it with a shocked expression. The rock just moved! And it had glowing eyes!

Her heart was racing a thousand beats per second and her breath accelerated in cooperation. The rock was still just staring at her, its hand outstretched as if it was still wiping away her tears.

Now that she looked at the rock a bit more closely she could notice that it not only had arms but also a pair of stubby feet that were stretched out before it, making it appear that it was actually sitting. Some of the algae was falling off of it from moving, bringing some brown straps into view that were bound around its body. They met at a blue square on its belly with a yellow swirl in the center.

The Buneary has seen her fair share of rock and steel Pokémon in Flow Town, but something like this never made it through there, she was pretty sure of that.

She gasped a bit surprised as the rock moved back to its original position and stared again at the murky mass of water. The bunny Pokémon tilted its head to the side, unsure of what to think of this strange creature. Well, it seemed that it did try to cheer her up a little, so she guessed that it must be good Pokémon! Or whatever it was...

Cautiously she moved back over to the Golem. "...H-hello...?" She almost whispered, faltering a bit.

Silence.

"...Mister?" She spoke up a little.

Still silence.

"Helloohoooo, somebody home?" She now shouted impatiently at the cyan rock.

More silence.

She furrowed her brows. Was it ignoring her or was it just...?

She glanced back over to the river. Of course, it must like looking at her favorite spot as well!

"Are you enjoying the view?"

Still no response.

She smiled, her sadness from before fading. She sat back down on her old spot next to the rock and enjoyed the sight in silence with it. Her troubled mind calmed down as she began to think of nothing in particular. The strange rock was right, she didn't even needed it to tell her this with words.

Enjoying something in full tranquility was exactly what she needed. The only sounds that were disturbing her ears now were the gentle whooshes of the waves.

Maybe she should just close her eyes, take a little nap on the shore. Yeah, that sounded like a great idea! When her eyelids were just half closed however, something suddenly caught her attention.

Just up the river, inside the water swam a brown dot. Curious of what it might be she squinted her eyes instead of closing them in order to distinguish it. After a few seconds she was able to recognize what the dot was.

"Is that... is that a Pokémon?!" She yelled out, to no one, really.

Her eyes shot back open when she noticed that it just floated on its back motionless, gently getting pulled down the rivers stream. A great wave of worry shot through her body causing her to jump up.

Her first instinct was to swim over to it and somehow pull it ashore. Her own rationality however kept her from doing so. She wasn't a very good swimmer and pulling a Pokémon ashore was something she could forget with her little limbs anyways.

But maybe she could use some sort of stick to pull it ashore. She picked up one of the laying around branches that still kept most of its leaves and experimented how far over the river she could reach with it. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't even long enough to nudge the still intact waterlilies. She groaned in frustration. At this rate the Pokémon had better chances getting stuck between the reeds. She calculated per eyesight how long the stick had to be in order to reach the very middle of the river. Having the broad length inside her head she looked around for any potential contestant. The only thing that could even come close was the old tree trunk laying near the riverbank, and that thing was almost nine times her height! No matter, she had to try it!

She placed herself behind the, at least when compared to her, massive tree and grabbed onto its rotten bark. She braced herself before pushing against it with all her might. The wood beneath her paws crackled a little as she pushed against the dead tree, her feet slipping off the wet grass constantly. After a while her paws started to hurt so she turned around and tried to move it with her back instead, but the tree stayed stubbornly where is was. Exhausted, she slumped down against the huge peace of wood, taking deep breaths of air. This wasn't going to get her anywhere...

After a short pause to catch her breath again she looked up over the tree to see how far the Pokémon has floated down the river. She had to discover that the Pokémon already covered a fair distance and was about to pass her.

Why didn't that dumb tree move? More importantly, how foolish was she to try a plan that was doomed from the start?! She cursed herself for her own stupidity weakness. She almost wanted to give up... but...

No! She refused to let someone get hurt on her watch! There had to be another way to safe that Pokémon! The gears inside her head were now moving at full speed as she looked around, trying to find something, anything that could assist her with this Pokémon's rescue.

Her eyes made contact with the cyan Golem. Maybe it could help her? It looked very strong but she wondered if it could even swim. Besides, she didn't even know if it was even capable of understanding her. She looked back at the floating Pokémon that got slowly, but steadily pulled by the river towards the ocean. Not very further down the river was a chute that even was a challenge for most water Pokémon. If she wouldn't get him out now, it probably would...

She shook her head, dismissing those thoughts. She just had to hope that the rock could help her!

"Mister! Can you understand me?" She said distinctively, trying to somehow pull through the Golem.

Much to her relief it really began to look at her again. Wasting no time she pointed towards the Pokémon that was floating in the water.

"Do you see that Pokémon over there in the water?" Her voice was anxious. She really hoped it was going to understand her instructions,"C-can you please get it out of the water?"

The living rock moved its body in the direction of the Pokémon in distress and stared again without the slightest of motion. She waited a few more moments and then sighed desperate. No, of course it couldn't help her...

Just as she finished her thought though however, it stood up, the ground shifting beneath its heavy body, and began to walk towards the river. Wasn't it for the soft earth absorbing the vibrations, she was sure she could have felt every step it took, the rock looked that heavy.

The Buneary watched with googly eyes how the Golem actually did what she told it. To be honest, she did not except that it was going to do anything. She thought it would just resume to stare blankly into the ocean, ignoring her like it did before.

She tracked the rock with her eyes as it slowly closed in onto the Pokémon, causing big waves as it stepped into the river, its body sinking deeper into the water, deeper and deeper until...

...It was entirely submerged.

There was no sound at all outside of the tender waves splashing against the shore, even the bird Pokémon in the distance wasn't keeping up its lovely song anymore. The river continued to casually carry on the brown Pokémon as if it was trying to mock the Buneary. She shifted around uncomfortably. The cyan Golem was underwater for a while now.

For quite a while, actually.

An awful long while.

She made a worried face. Did it just... drown...?

Her stomach turned violently as she realized what she supposedly just did. Not only couldn't she help someone in need, she also just sent someone else into his doom!

Her eyes slowly widened and tears started to build up in them again, this time out of sheer horror of what just played out in front of her. Two Pokémon were about to die and there was nothing that she could do about it! She slumped down onto her knees, her trembling paws griping her head.

"I-I'm u-useless..." She stuttered to herself, "I'm w-weak and u-useless!"

**Splash!**

A sudden loud noise dragged her out of her shocked state. Looking in the distance she saw how a big hand reached out of the river and grabbed the small Pokémon. Then, slow and steadily, the hand griping the Pokémon moved back towards the riverbank.

She had to process for a bit what was happening. After she got it though a great burden got lifted from her body. The rock did it!

She wiped off her tears and stood back up again, ignoring her wobbly legs. There was no time for any self contempt! Patiently, she waited for the cyan rock to deliver the Pokémon in trouble. It emerged back from the water, drenched in water and possibly even more algae sticking to it then before. It was only a few steps away now.

The Buneary hoped the Pokémon was still alive. No matter how hurt it would be, she would somehow find a way to safe it, try and use everything she learned by now from her mother-!

The moving rock threw the Pokémon carelessly onto the ground with a loud thud.

The impact startled her so much that she jumped back a bit. Flabbergasted she looked at the thrown Pokémon and then up at the Golem.

"Y-you can't just throw someone like that!" She lectured the cyan being shocked.

The rock just stared at her.

She shook her head. There was a more important task at paw!

She took a quick, yet accurate look at the Pokémon. It had a big round body, stubby arms, two small feet and a pair of long, floppy ears, though not as long and floppy as hers. Its tail was really long, longer than her body, excluding her ears, which had a bunch dark brown stripes across it. Though most notably was probably the big, white circle on its belly which almost resembled an bullseye. She was able to recognize it as a Sentret, but wasn't sure if it was a boy or a girl. She carefully lifted the Sentret so she could check the backside of its body. While doing so, she noticed that it had some weird symbols shaved onto the back of its head. She has never seen something even remotely similar in her entire live. Ignoring them for now, she lowered its body back into the grass.

After confirming that nothing was wrong with it on the outside, she quickly hold one of her long ears over its mouth. Much to her apprehension, it wasn't breathing. The Sentret must have swallowed a lot of water and it lungs are now filled with the stuff. She somehow had to get the water out of it so it could breathe again!

She took both her paws and pressed them on the Pokémon chest as hard as she was able to, using her whole body as support. Sadly though, the Sentret's body barely budged underneath her weight. Not wanting to give up she pursued her assault, shutting her eyes in frustration.

"Come oooooon!" She begged her body to build up enough strength to save the Sentret`s live, but its ribs were just to sturdy for her little body. There was now way she was going give up however, she just would have to try and try and-!

She boggled from the Sentrets body when a giant fist suddenly slammed down onto it, causing the Pokémon to shoot a fountain of water skyward from its mouth.

Aghast she stared at the Golem. How on earth could it be so careless?! It probably broke all the Sentret's bones with that punch! She found herself getting angry at the rock. She didn't care if it had any emotions or not, that was no way to treat a wounded person!

A couple of weak coughs however stopped her from smart-mouthing the cyan Golem again. Looking down she saw how the brown Pokémon coughed up more water from its mouth and then began to breath faintly.

It was alive! She felt such a great relief in her body that she was getting a bit dizzy. She did it!

No, hold on... She didn't do anything, it was the Golem that saved its live. But instead of feeling glum about it she walked over to the Golem and gave it a hug. She was hardly able to fit her arms around even one of its hands.

"I'm sorry for doubting you, mister!" She said, "But next time please don't handle someone that careless, okay?"

As before, no answer.

A smile crept on her face. She didn't knew why, but she somehow she felt that it understood her.

She focused her attention quickly back at the hurt Pokémon. It was breathing now, though only very weak and offbeat. The Golem's fist had also left a big bruise on its belly. She had to stabilize his condition immediately or else the Sentret might not hold on a lot longer!

Her head jerked up when she remembered that she had carried a couple of berries down the riverbank. She moved her head around rapidly, scanning the ground after the correct berry.

Pecha, Cheri, Chesto...

There! A single Oran Berry laid in the grass. Without hesitating she quickly walked over to it and picked up the berry. She went back to the Sentret and tried to squeeze it open. When that didn't work she instead decided to bite a chunk off of it. A explosion of flavors spread inside her mouth as she chewed on the berry, making her shudder a bit.

Now that the berry had a outlet she began to pour its juices over the Pokémon's bruise. The thick liquid mostly kept stuck to its fur. She remembered the time when she accidentally covered herself in Oran Berry juice when she and her mother where making some jam. She swears that she even to this day still finds some of that stuff inside her ears...

Wait, what was she thinking about?! She should keep her attention to the hurt Pokémon! Taking its bruise back into focus, she could declare that that it had a more than s satisfying amount of juice sticking to it. Carefully she then moved the berry over the Sentret's mouth and poured some of the thick juice inside, only squeezing out a few small streams at a time so I wouldn't start chocking on it.

A bit unsteady the unconscious Pokémon gulped down the juices. When it swallowed the last droplet of the berry the Buneary could almost see how its breathing became a bit more regular. She let her body fall back on the grass for the umpteenth time and gave a long, relieved sigh.

The Sentret looked like it was alright now. Well, at least she thought so. She should bring it back home to her mother, who was a way better nurse than her, just to be sure. The Sentret didn't look too heavy, however she also was not a heavyweight herself.

She reconsidered asking the Golem again. But it already helped her out so much, she didn't wanted to abuse its kindness. She shook her head at her silliness. The walking Rock probably wouldn't feel abused when helping a Pokémon in need.

"Mister?" She spoke up to the cyan Golem, "Could you please carry that Sentret back to my home?"

It looked down at her, than at the Sentret. When a few moments passed it picked the insured Pokémon up and threw it over its shoulder with a loud thud.

"C-careful, please!"

Nothing.

She sighed one last time and waved the Golem over to her.

"Come on, this way!" She exclaimed, which made the Golem follow her closely. Determined she walked back home in a steady pace, being mindful about not outrunning the cyan rock. She constantly looked back to make sure the Golem was still behind her and the Sentret on its shoulder.

The house was a bit secluded so they didn't had to pass through the town. She decided to take a bit of a detour through some bushes to save some time reaching the little hill she lived on. This however meant that they had to fight their way towards the little hill she lived on. Well, she had to fight, at least. The Golem was able to walk right through the thickest without much trouble, making it at times stop right behind the Buneary while she tried to crawl between some intertwined twigs. Once they arrived it already was evening, the sky painted red by the setting sun.

She detected her mother how she watered a fresh patch of planted berries in their berry garden from the distance. The Lopunny looked up when she noticed the commotion the two of them were making from between the bushes. Once she noticed that it was her daughter that was coming home her face perked up.

"Bella, where have you been so long?" She called out to her from afar, "I was so worried about-!"

She dropped her watering can and lifted her arms over her mouth when she saw her daughter up close.

"H-honey, what happened to you?!" Her mother said shocked after a long gasp.

Oh, right. She forgot that she looked like a total mess. Her black eye suddenly started to hurt again when she reminded herself of it.

"Don't mind me, mom!" Bella pointed at the still unconscious Sentret on the Golem's shoulder. "That Pokémon really needs your help!"

Her mother glanced up at the Sentret and then gave Bella a understanding nod. She walked over to the Pokémon and analyzed it as precisely as possible.

"Tell your friend to bring him inside." She said serious after finishing her evaluation.

Bella nodded back at her mother and quickly gave the Golem hand gestures that suggested it to go inside. It complied.

"Hold on," Bella wanted to head inside as well but the fluffy paw of her mother stopped her, "you go and clean yourself up, honey, I take care of things from here."

"But mom, I wanna help, too!" Bella puffed up her cheeks in disapproval. The Sentret was her patient after all!

"No," Her mother knelt down to face her and her gave her a warm smile, "you already did more than enough to save the small fellow." The Lopunny stroked her head and then planted a kiss on it. "I'm very proud of you."

"Now go and clean yourself." She gave her a knowing wink, "There is also still some Mago Cake left on the porch, if you're interested."

Bella's ears jerked up at the mentioning of the cake. A smile appeared on her face and she nodded in comprehension. She was a bit disappointed that she couldn't help her mother, but figured that the Sentret was in good hands with her. And well - She took a quick glance of her ruined fur - she really did look like a total mess.

She moved over to their backyard to clean her fur with their water pump, not fond of the cold water that she was about to wash herself with. However, her mouth kept watering up whenever she thought about the Mago Cake that was waiting for her, dismissing any regrets she had about this bath.


	2. Chapter 2: Flowing through Town

**Chapter 2**

**Flowing through Town**

Bella sat in her room and read one of her favorite story books. This one told about a Staraptor and his Woobat sidekick exploring the ruins of an ancient Hawlucha tribe. They where currently in Town and gathered information from an old Magcargo while an evil Weavile spied on the three.

She chuckled at the, in retrospect, silly display. She would love to be in a similar scenario, though. She as a dashing hero and her jolly sidekick discovering the mysteries of this world. She sighed. Being able to see more of the world, discovered or not, already would be enough to her.

Feeling her eyes getting weary, she put the book away and stretched her arms on her stool. Right next to her stood her bed in which the Sentret from yesterday was sleeping rather soundly. He had a with oran juice soaked bandage around his waist that was supposed to help him heal faster.

A long yawn escaped her mouth. She had insisted that the Sentret would sleep in her bed and she would watch over him. Her mother had offered Bella to sleep together in her bed, but she wanted to stay with her patient. However, she fell asleep on her chair and woke up with an awful stiff neck. Her face flushed a bit in embarrassment when she remembered herself of it.

She dangled her feet while she watched the Sentret sleep. Her fears from yesterday were kind of correct. The Golems fist had left two of his ribs bruised, not broken. Her mother also said that he had a undercooling and probably will wake up with an awful cold. Her mother also figured out that he was a boy. This also meant that this was the first boy to be in her room, ever. And he laid in her bed. She felt heat was raising up in her cheeks, but she quickly dismissed that silly thought.

Her gaze went over to the Golem. It stood in one of the corners, not moving an inch, its yellow eyes glowing almost eerily in the dim room. It remained there since yesterday after it helped carrying the Sentret. Even though she already told it that it was free to leave, it just continued to dwell there, void of any sound. She figured that it probably just wanted to assure that the Sentret would get better.

"Uuuuh..."

Her ears perked up as she heard a small groan beside her. She looked over to the Sentret and saw that he slowly was opening his eyes. Happy, albeit a bit baffled, she walked over to his side. Her mother has told her that he might be out for days, yet before her very eyes he was slowly standing up.

"Eeech..." The Sentrets body steadily raised from the bed, bulging the sheets he laid under.

"You're awake!" Bella screamed in bliss and began to give the Sentret a big hug. She was so happy! She could finally talk to, tell and ask him stuff!

"Ooouuuhhh..." The Sentret groaned weakly under the Buneary's merciless hugging attack. Bella found herself quickly dismissing the hug when she realized that the Sentret still had a big bruise on his body.

"S-sorry!" She said, quickly adding an apologetic bow.

The Sentret eyes were now completely open and they began to scan the room around him warily.

"W..." His voice was barely audible, like a giant frog was inside his throat. A couple of dry coughs cleared it out, though.

"W-Where am I?" He slowly managed to say.

Bella gave him a reassuring smile. "You are in our house in Flow Town. Don't worry, you're save her."

"Flow Town...?" The Sentret murmured, his eyes strained as if it had a bad headache.

"Yep! And I and that nice Golem over there saved you!" She exclaimed proudly while pointing at the cyan rock.

He blinked at the big Golem in the corner and then at her. After groaning a little bit he slowly lifted himself further from the bed as if he was about to leave it.

"Whoa, hold on!" Bella lowered him carefully down into the pillow underneath him again, "You almost drowned yesterday, you shouldn't be up and about right now!"

He looked at her with a confused look. "Drowned? What do you mean drowned...?"

"Well, just drowned." She balled one of her paws into a fist and pressed her cheek against it, unsure on how to tell him this in a different way, "You do remember how you ended up in the river, right?."

The Sentret began to ponder a little at the question and shook his head. Bella gave him a worried look, he couldn't had forgotten everything.

...Could he?

"H-how about your name?" She said, fearing the worst, "Can you at least remember your name?"

Once more, the Sentret began to think about the question hard. After he was done he shook his head again.

"Nope. I can't really recall anything at all, actually."

Oh dear.

Bella's worry turned into panic. Did he really forgot everything? A uncomfortable shudder rushed through her body. She couldn't even imagine what he must be going through right now!

"You got something to eat?" He said unfazed, "I'm a little peckish."

Her mouth gaped open as she stared blankly at the Sentret. Didn't he care that he couldn't remember anything?

A little growl in her stomach reminded her that she also hadn't eaten anything today. She giggled sheepishly. He was right, something to eat was exactly what they needed right now.

* * *

She reentered the room with a small bowl filled with berry slices her mother made for them. She sat herself down on the corner of her bed right were the Sentret laid and they both began to greedily reach into the bowl. When they had their mouths filled with berries Bella continued their conversation.

"So," she began between chews," you really can't remember a thing?"

The Sentret crossed his arms and closed his eyes in thought. When he swallowed the contents of his mouth he began to talk.

"Maybe an orange paw," he shook his head, "but nothing besides that."

Bella looked down at one of her own paws. They were chocolate brown, so it wasn't her paws he remembered. With these very paws she then grabbed another slice and stuffed it inside of her. While chewing on the sweet fruit she began to think herself.

"Hmm..." Her face brightened up when suddenly had a great idea. "How about we just give you a name until you remember your real one then?"

The Sentret contemplated over her suggestion for a minute but then just shrugged. "I guess, but I can't come up with a good one on the spot."

The Buneary nibbled at the edge of one of the slices while she tried to come up with a name for him.

"How abouuut... Sam?" She suggested.

"Sam?" The Sentret gave her a puzzled look, "Why Sam?"

Now Bella shrugged. "I dunno, I think its a cool name."

The Sentret gave a little nod. "I suppose that's fare enough. Alright then," He grinned at her, showing off some berry chunks between his teeth, "then I'm gonna be Sam from this day on."

They chuckled in union before the newly named Sam spoke up again. "What's your name by the way?"

Oh, she totally forgot to tell him. She felt a little foolish for asking for his name before even giving him hers. "I'm Bella, nice to meet you!"

"Nice to meet you too. Oh!" Sam's head jerked up as if he just remembered something. "And thanks for saving me, by the way!"

Bella shook her head. "Don't thank me, thank him!" She pointed back over to the Golem standing in the corner who was so silent that it almost was invisible despite its size.

"He got you out of the ocean and then pressed the water out of your body that you swallowed!" She looked down at his bandages and pouted her lips. "Though he was a little rough."

"Thanks then, uhm..." He leaned over to Bella and whispered to her. "What's his name?"

"I dunno." Bella watched the Golem how it did not do a thing, as always. "I found him back on the beach where he just looked into the distance."

She cocked her head to the side. "To be honest, I still don't know why he even helped me with you."

"Hm." Sam reached into the bowl again to retrieve another slice of berry. "He must be a nice guy, though. I mean, he saved me, didn't he?"

"Yeah, I guess." Bella cheerfully smiled at the big rock. Her smile faltered however when she recalled that Sam just called the Golem a him.

"Erm, are you sure though that he is a boy...?" She hesitatingly added after pondering some more over the Golem's origin.

Sam just shrugged while he munched on the last berry slice. "He doesn't look all that girly to me."

Bella giggled when she imagined the Golem wearing a pink bow and dress. She supposed that Sam was right. But she still had no clue about the Golem's name, neither did she know what kind of Pokémon he even was, if he even was one. She smiled again when she had another genius idea.

"Hey, mister!" She called out to the Golem in the corner, "How about we give you a name, too?"

Not a word.

The Buneary tried to fish another berry slice out of the empty bowl while she thought of a name for the Golem. He was big, quiet, strong and kind, a little clumsy when it came to handling others, though. What would be the perfect name for someone like him? Hm...

"Golbi!" Bella exclaimed as she bumped her paws together, "That's a perfect name for him!"

"Hm, I dunno..." Sam interfered, "doesn't really sound that bulky."

"It's a good name!" She refuted and directed her attention to the Golem. "Don't you agree?"

No objections.

She smiled back at Sam and giggled again. "See? He likes it!"

Bella was happy that she at last was able to call the two by a name, she didn't really like it to call a Pokémon by its race. However, name or not, she didn't knew anything else about her new friends. Maybe they should ask around town to maybe find somebody that does know one of the two.

She looked inside the bowl only to find that it has been completely emptied. Disappointed about only having like three slices, she laid it aside. Sam really must have had been hungry!

"Hey Sam," Bella watched how Sam was about to swallow the last berry slice. He stopped himself though when he heard the Buneary talk, "do you think you can walk?"

The Sentret shifted his body beneath the sheets he was laying under in order figure out the answer to that question.

"Sure," He said, "unless you're gonna give me another one of your hugs."

Embarrassed, Bella moved her flushing face away from his gaze. She didn't even know him for an hour an he was already teasing her! It didn't took her long to regain her stance and began to explain her plan to him.

"Good, I wanted to show you around Town and at the same time maybe find somebody who might knows something about you."

Sam nodded and threw the sheets off of him. He stretched his body a little before deciding to stand up on her bed. Now that he stood, Bella was able to estimate how tall he really was. He was surprisingly small, even for a Sentret. The top of his head would probably just barely reach her chin when they would stand parallel to each other. Strange, she thought. He doesn't sound _that_ young. Maybe he was simply just small?

Shrugging it off she jumped off the bed, closely followed by Sam and guided him to the door. Before she left, however, she paused inside the door frame.

"Golbi," She turned around to face the Golem in the corner, "you wanna come too?"

Golbi's upper body slowly moved, making the sound of rocks grinding against each other. When his square eyes made contact with those of Bella he stopped. It took a few seconds, but then the cyan Golem followed her question and started to move his legs. The whole room began to shake with every tstep he took.

On the way out she noticed how her mother was about to leave with a basket around her arm. How convenient! She wanted to tell about their plans anyway.

"Hey mom," She shouted out to the Lopunny to get her attention. Her giant ears jerked up when she heard her voice and turned around, "I going to show my friends around Town!"

Her mother looked uncertain down at the small Sentret. "Are you sure your little friend is up for the task?"

Sam tapped his fist against his chest confident, winced however a little when he hit the bruise underneath his bandages. He quickly recovered his poised stance, though his cheeks began to blush.

"S-sure am, miss, uhm..."

The Lopunny giggled at his proud display. "Just call me Linfa. What's your name by the way, cutey?"

The Sentet's face blushed even harder when Bella's mother leaned over and began to pinch one of Sam's cheeks, much to Bella's displeasure.

"His name's Sam." She answered for him, a bit sour. Her mother was so embarrassing sometimes! The basket her mother was holding however quickly redirected her attention.

"Do you want to go somewhere, mom?" She asked the Lopunny, causing her mother to stop harassing the poor Sentret.

"Yes, I wanted to go and collect some berries. Our stock is getting pretty low."

A unpleasant taste spread on her tongue. She originally was supposed to get some berries for them yesterday, however these two purple bullies had stolen them. Bella has told her mother that she has lost her basket while saving Sam and that she got her black eye by falling on a rock. Self contempt rose within because she had lied to her mother. She hadn't told her because she didn't wanted her mother to think that she was weak. However, she never figured it would be so difficult to not tell the truth.

Linfa probably noticed her daughters glum face because she started to fondle the top of her head.

"Don't worry about it, honey." She tried to sheer Bella up, "A basket of stupid berries is nothing compared to a Pokèmon's live."

Bella sighed inwardly. That she lost the basket wasn't the reason that made her feel bad, it was the fact that she had lied to her mother. Not wanting to disappoint her though, she faced her mother and gave her a fake smile.

"Thanks, mom!"

Happy with that answer the Lopunny widened her smile.

"Ah!" Linfa held her free paw over her mouth. "I totally forgot! While you're in town, can you please go to the Kecleon Market and ask for their latest order?"

Bella nodded. She wanted to give the Market a visit anyway, so she had no problem with her mothers request at all.

Her mother placed her paw on her chest and sighed relieved. "Phew, thanks honey."

"Oh, and honey," she knelt down and whispered the next words directly into the Buneary's ears, "please look out for your friend, he might act all tough but his condition can very quickly worsen when he strains himself to much."

Bella looked over to her friend. He got back on his feet rather quickly, that much was true. There wasn't any sign on him that said that he almost drowned yesterday, besides the bandage around his body maybe. Was it all just an act to get out off bed? With confidence in her face she nodded at her mother.

"I will!"

"Good," Her mother tickled her ear a little, making the Buneary giggle, "now go and show your friends around town!"

With that, Linfa waved goodbye and departed towards the forest. She didn't worry for her mothers safety, she knew the forest and every location of every berry tree in it like the back of her paw. Bella turned to her friends and gestured them to follow her.

"Let's go!" She said excited. "The last one there is a rotten Cheri Berry!"

And so she ran off to the town as fast as her little feet could carry her, loud stomps confirming that at least Golbi was following her. She couldn't wait to show her new friends all the facilities around town!

Friends... She has called them that already a couple of times, but just now it dwelled on her that, for the first time in her life, she had actual friends. A funny feeling rose up inside her stomach. As strange as it was however, it somehow made her happy. With a huge grin on her face she picked up her pace.

* * *

When she reached the town gates she had to stop and catch her breath. She hadn't run that much since, well, ever! Her feet felt all wobbly and she had to take deep breath to satisfy her body with enough air, making her throat hurt.

"You.. you're pretty fast!" She heard Sam say between gasps. She turned to get him in her vision and saw how he was bending over a bit, clutching his chest. Her heart tightened in her chest. Oh no! She made a promise to her mother just a moment ago to not have Sam strain himself to much and she already broke it! How could she be so careless?!

"S-sorry Sam!" She said, her voice all husky, "I shouldn't have just run off!"

"Nah, its nothing." Sam raised his paw and took one last, deep breath before standing up straight again, "I actually feel pretty glad that you ran, my limbs really needed the workout!"

She put a paw on her hip. Now he was just lying to not make her feel bad. She made a mistake and should feel bad about it! It was just fair to teach her to not be so careless again! A series of loud steps however ended her current train of thought when Golbi arrived.

"Looks like you're a rotten Cherri Berry, Golbi!" Sam began to chuckle.

Bella started to laugh as well and shook her head afterward. Sam was right, she shouldn't take it to hard. Besides, she still had to give them a tour around town and what good was a guide who was all gloomy? She waited for the three of them, or rather the two of them, Golbi didn't really breathe, to fully recover their breath. After her heart wasn't racing anymore, she coughed slightly to get everyone's attention. Once she was sure that everyone was listening she stroke a pose and began to speak.

"This right here is Flow Town!" She pointed at the giant, wooden arc with big letters saying "Flow Town" carved into it.

"It might not be the biggest Town around, in fact it is quite small, but it still has a lot of shops because this place has a bunch of different Pokémon passing through, because, uhm.."

She struggled to find the reason why so many Pokémon passed this place, sometimes only staying for less then a day. She recalled that it had something to do with the fact that it was located between a bigger town and a hotspot for adventurers, but she wasn't really sure.

"Never mind the reason," She just said, achieving to make Sam chuckle, "but because of all the Pokémon just flowing through, the Town is called what it's called! And, well, the big river the town is build around might also be a part of the reason for that."

"So let's see..." She tapped her chin while she collected in her mind every interesting facility the town had to offer, "First off there is the Kecleon Market, but every town has one of those. Then there is Goodra's Gooey Goodies, a place where you can buy and wrap up presents for your friends, though I would stay away from Goodra or else he's going to give you a **really** messy hug!"

Bella giggled at her own remarks, with which Sam joined in gladly. Golbi, on the other hand, just listened in silence.

"Okay, then there is Klefki's Caisse, you can go there if you got anything, from a chest to your frontdoor, that needs to be opened. She somehow always finds a way to open it without breaking anything. Then we got a Town Hall with a Adventurer Secretarial and a Billboard for jobs Pokèmon might need help with and there is alsooooo..."

She scratched the back of her head, what was she forgetting? She remembered to actually wanting to go there as well...

"Uhm."

She looked over to Sam who was raising his paw in order to ask a question. Bella snickered at his student like behavior and pointed at him.

"Yes, what is it?"

"Are we actually gonna go inside?" He said with a small frown on his face.

She gave a jump when she realized that they still stood outside of town. Embarrassed, she turned around and led them inside.

The place itself, as usual, was surprisingly busy with Pokémon being about, so it wasn't that surprising after all. A lot of them where official adventurer's identified by their Adventurer's Badge they showed openly connected to any type of cloth that might be a scarf or bow. At times, she would be in Town just to ask some of them about the adventures they had. It was always fascinating to her to hear from the places they went and the treasures they discovered.

Today, however, she had no time for this! Today, she would show her new friends everything this town had to offer!

"The best wares you could ever find, Berries, Seeds and Orbs only here at the Kecleon Market!"

The distinctive voice of Kecleon rang in her ears. He was always trying his best to get as many Pokémon as possible to buy his wares at his shop, with little success this time around, it seemed though. Not to many Pokémon were browsing through his wares, something she should probably exploit because this could change on a dime in this town.

"Come on, guys!" She called over her friends as she made her way to Kecleon.

"Hi, mister Kecleon!" She called out to get the salesman's attention.

"Oh, hello there, little Bella-!" The Kecleon stopped mid sentence when he saw Bella's face, "Oh my, what happened to your eye?"

Bella looked at him confused for a few seconds before her eye started hurt again when she got reminded of the incident from yesterday. Her eye has gotten a lot better, especially with her mother Oran ointment, however it still would at least take a weak for it to completely disappear.

"What does he mean," She heard Sam behind her dumbfounded, "what's wrong with your eye?"

Bella's head sunk a little into her body at Sam's silly question. Well, she supposed she couldn't blame him, to him, she always had that swollen eye.

"I-its nothing." She answered after she recollected herself. "I wanted to ask you if you got any orders for my mom, it has been a while."

"Oh, about that!" The Kecleon's face suddenly perked up. "I was running low on stock, in fact. However, yesterday these two nice Pokémon came along and sold me a basket filled with various berries, you see." his eyes sparked with joy as he recalled this opportune deal, "They even sold me them for half the normal price! Some Pokémon really are selfless!"

A lump began to grow inside her throat at the mention of the two 'nice' Pokémon. Undoubtedly Kecleon meant that cat named Pelly and the Scorupi that assaulted her yesterday. She felt how heat rose inside of her cheeks. Not only did they beat her up and steal her possessions, they also now ruined her mother's business opportunity.

"Yeah, selfless..." She confirmed with the most sour voice she could muster.

"I'm sorry, Bella, but you have to tell your mother- Hey! What are you doing, you little thief!"

Bella jerked her head over to where the furious salesman was screaming at. When she did, she saw how Sam has picked up one of the apples that were on sale and now was carefree biting into it.

"S-sam!" She shouted flabbergasted, "You can't just eat that!"

"Why not?" He munched at her, pieces of the apple flying out of his mouth.

"Because you have to pay for it, that's why!" Kecleon yelled angry.

Sam tilted his head confused to the side. "What do you mean, pay?"

"Pay, with Poke! You know, Money!" Kecleon emphasized the last word. He was getting rather inpatient with Sam, indicated by a big vain on his forehead.

"Poke? What's that?"

"I... wha.."

Kecleon dropped his arms in defeat and stared stunned together with Bella at Sam. Did he really not know the concept of buying things? Bella faced the Kecleon again and bowed before him.

"I'm really, really sorry, mister Kecleon!" She apologized, "Sam isn't from around here, so he still needs to learn a lot!"

Kecleon laid his palm over his face and began to mutter. "Keep the apple, just tell him to never do this again, okay?"

Bella nodded exaggerated and bowed one more time. "I'm really sorry!"

She then proceeded to grab Sam by his arm and pulled him away from the Market. He yelped a little and tried with all of his will to not drop his already half eaten apple.

She forcefully turned him around and stared angry down at his little face. "Seriously, what was that?"

"What was what?" Sam counter asked while casually eating his dishonestly obtained fruit.

She poked his belly rather rough to get him to listen more seriously. "You stole something, you're not allowed to do that!"

Sam just shrugged at her unfazed. "So~rry that nobody told me."

She wanted to lecture him, shout at him for doing something this stupid, but no...

Bella took a deep breath to help her calm her senses and control her anger. She exploded a bit to much their. Her frustration over these two purple bullies was probably still getting to her. Sam was her new friend and she didn't wanted to destroy this friendship already by getting overly angry at him because of a stupid apple. He lost all of his memory and probably with that all the base concepts of a civilization. When she exhaled the cone of air back out of her body her voice was much more calm then it was before.

"Just promise me to not take anything without asking first again, alright?"

Sam nodded, his mouth curling into a smile. "Alright!"

Glad with Sam's cooperation she tickled him behind his ear like her mother always does with hers, causing him to shudder and uncontrollably giggle. Much to Bella's enjoyment, he was really ticklish. Her little tickle attack even caused him to shudder enough to drop his apple. Horrified that is precious food fell to the ground he quickly freed himself from Bella's paw and leaned over to retrieve the fruit back from the ground.

While doing so, Bella notice the awkward symbols that were shaved into the back of his head again, showing his rosy skin underneath his fur. Now that she saw them up close they confused her even more. One looked like a squeezed S, the next one reminded her of Sam's ring on his belly, a patch of his fur still present in the middle of the circle. The last one of the three was very similar to that of Noctowl's crown feathers, only less spiky and a bit thicker. Hold on, Noctowl...?

That's right! The library! She wanted to go to the library and ask Noctowl if he maybe knew anything about Sam or Golbi! She shook her head embarrassed. How could she forget Noctowl? He and her mother were friends for quite a while and she herself visited his place on a regular basis to get some new books talking about adventurers.

"Hey Sam and Golbi!" She caught the attention of Sam while Golbi was standing close to her the whole time anyways. "Let's go and meet somebody that might know something about you."

* * *

It didn't took them long to get to the library. The building itself was a rather shallow looking house, with dirty windows and a unkempt flowerbed surrounding the door that was now only home to two dead and thorny bushes.

Bella puffed up her cheeks. They were supposed to water them regularly! Her mother and she had planted these two bushes for Noctowl and his daughter as a birthday present. They were beautiful flower bushes and around this time of year were supposed to blossom. She was actually looking forward to see them!

The owner of the library never were the tidiest and much rather buried their beaks into a book than doing the household. They were at least really knowledgeable. You could ask them the most obscure things and they often would have a answer at their claw. If she wanted to figure out something about her friends she should definitely start asking here.

She knocked at the door and, as always, there was no answer. Sighing the opened the, as always, open door and stepped inside. Sam and Golbi followed her closely as they entered the barely lit room. The incoming sunlight that was able to pass through the dirty windows made million specks of dust visible that danced around wildly when she passed them. The whole floor of the room was filled with pile of books and even more were ranked next to each other in huge bookcases that created a small labyrinth.

Opposite of the entrance was a counter behind which a big, brown owl was standing on a perch. He was writing on a piece of paper with a feather in his claw, ignoring everything that was happening around him. She walked up to the counter and harrumphed as loud as she possibly could. However, Noctowl continued to scribble away without giving her the faintest glimpse. She tried again, but it was no use. On her third attempt Sam began to join her, more out of his own amusement than to help her get the owls attention, and they cleared their throat in union. But no matter how hard they tried, Noctowl simply stayed in his little world the probably resided in right about now.

Bella sighed frustrated. This always happened with him. When he had some sort of idea he dropped everything he was doing at the moment and began to write down what was on his mind. For some reason, only the voice of her mother was able to pull him back into their world. What she wouldn't give to have this ability at times.

She turned back at the Golem behind her for some advice. "You wanna give it a try, Golbi?"

The cyan Golem stared a second at her, then reached out with his fist and punched the counter. The impact was strong enough to throw the owl off his perch and make him tumble into the bookcase behind him, causing him to get buried under a mountain of books that fell out of the shelf. Flustered, he elevated out of the pile.

"Wh-What is it, who is it?!" He babbled while rapidly changing the direction of his field of vision. After a while he locked onto Bella and smiled.

"Oh, hello Bella! What can I do for you?" He said with his deep and smooth voice, the type that was perfect for reading stories to others, yet it still it somehow had the edge of a scatterbrain inside of it.

She glanced at the battlefield around her. "Cleaning up would be a good start."

He scratched the back of his head with his left wing and smiled sheepishly. "Oh, you know how it goes, you search for one book, then you find another one, then you can't remember what you were originally looking for and just dig through some more instead!"

Seeing how it was futile to try and teach this owl she instead returned to her original question.

"I wanted to ask you if you might know anything about my friends here." She asked while pointing at Sam and Golbi. Or she thought she was pointing at both of them as she saw how Sam began to climb one of the bookcases. He was a fast climber, that much she had to admit. Seeing how the bookcase easily carried his weight and he looked like he was a experienced climber, she wasn't too afraid that anything might happen to him.

Noctowl looked up at Sam and turned his head by ninety degrees. "He looks like a normal Sentret to me, the other though..."

He turned his head into the other direction, this time so far that until it was upside down

"I never seen something like him..." He said with his crown feathers facing down, making them look like a crazy beard, "I'm sorry, I can't say I'm really all that gifted when it comes to recognizing Pokémon. What's his name?"

She shifted a bit on the spot before answering. "You see, I was kinda hoping you'd know, he doesn't actually talk..."

"Oh?" Noctowl flew over to Golbi to inspect him more closely, "Well, I suppose this solves that mystery." He tipped the empty space beneath the Golem's eyes with his left wing, "He has no mouth, hohoho!"

The owl started to laugh at his own joke, but Bella simply ignored his attempts of being funny.

"Don't you know anything else?

"Hm..." He returned his head to its normal position and craned his face really close to that of Golbi.

"He looks a bit worn and-" He sniffed at Golbi but pulled back after doing so, "he smells salty!"

She pulled her right paw over her face. Those were all things she could have figure out herself! This owl was really tedious at times.

"Fine, I want you to look at something else."

"Hey Sam!" She called out for the Sentret who was busy flying through some random book while balancing on his long tail on top of a bookcase.

Sam lifted the book over his head and looked at her with a newly acquired book-hat.

"What's up?" He asked, still perfectly balancing on his fluffy tail.

"Could you please get over here for a moment?"

"Okay."

He threw the book aside and, by using his tail like spring, lunged himself skyward, almost touching the ceiling by doing so. Bella gasped in shock. What was he thinking?! A fall from this height would cause almost any Pokémon to break its legs! She wanted to run over and somehow break his fall, but before she even moved her feet, Sam spread out his body and slowly glided down towards the three. He gracefully landed on all of his four paws between them.

"So, what is it?" He asked, acting like the little stunt he just performed was the most ordinary thing.

Bella sighed stressed. This Sentret was going to give her a heart attack one day. She drew her attention back to Noctowl after her heart was beating somewhat regularly again.

"Could you please look at those strange symbols on the back of Sam's head?" She requested from the tall owl. Sam's ears jerked up in confusion at the mentioning of the symbols.

"Huh? What Symbols?" He tried to turn his head around in order to see whatever Bella was talking about, even running in circles on one spot. Sadly for him, the symbols were simply out of reach for his eyes. After running circles for a while he got dizzy what caused him to fall over on his backside. He shook his head and stood back up again, then stared at Bella with a frown on his face.

"Hey, are you trying to trick me?" He said offended.

"No no!" Bella quickly raised her paws up apologetically, "I just forgot to tell you about them, really!".

"No, I've never seen those either."

Noctowl interrupted their little argument by promptly blurting out the result of his small research. He was currently shoving his face into Sam's neck, making the Sentret a bit nervous when he finally noticed him. Bella was able to see how he shuddered every time the breath of the owl crawled down his back.

"They look kinda ancient," He suggested, "but my daughter is more the ancient story type."

He removed his head out of Sam's personal bubble with a big, proud smile on his beak.

"She just loves story's of old civilizations and relics! I'm sure she can help you with this- Oh right!"

Noctowl's eyes and beak shot open like he suddenly remembered something very important.

"Have you three seen Tooty?" He asked frantic, his head rolling from one side to the other, "She left the house this morning, saying that she was quickly going to fetch a few things, but hasn't been back since! I'm getting a bit worried..."

"Now that I think of it, it's strange that she left the house to 'fetch' something. She never did that before." His head stopped moving and his wings dropped, his face looking troubled, "I would go and look for her myself, but I can't leave the library empty."

Bella shook her head. "I'm sorry, we haven't seen her, Noctowl."

His wings dropped even further. "I see..."

The glum owl was making Bella feel really sorry for him. He was kind of a scatterbrain and pretty weird at times, however she was always able to tell that he loved his daughter more than anything.

"Well... We could go and look for her, right Sam and Golbi?" She suggested to the owl, leaning her head towards Sam for confirmation.

"Sure can!" Sam, much to her relieve, agreed with a confident grin on his face.

Golbi, like he did every time before, just kept quiet.

"Really? You would do that for me?" Noctowl asked the two astonished. "I mean, I don't want to waste your time-"

"Oh please, Noctowl." She interrupted his nonsense before he could continue it, "Since when is helping out friends a waste of time?"

The owls mood lightened up a bit. "Thank you, Bella. You and your mother somehow always find a way to make this fool feel better."

She gave him a reassuring smile. "No Problem!"

"So!" The attention of everyone in the room got redirected towards her, "Did Tooty say where she went?"

Noctowl shook his head. "Sadly no, but I would suggest asking around, there aren't many, and with that I mean no other, Hoothoot living in this town."

"Hmmm..." She tried to think of a place were Tooty would go. She wasn't a scatterbrain like her father, in fact she was always pretty well organized. Unlike her father, however, she could be bold at times and didn't really care much for friends. She'd rather stay home and read her books about ancient societies. For her to suddenly going out to 'fetch some things' seemed out of character.

But she wasn't going to find Tooty by just standing here! It would probably be for the best to follow the advice of Noctowl and ask around if anyone has seen her.

"Okay!" She headed for the door and waved Noctowl goodbye, "We'll find Tooty for sure!"

Sam sprinted for the door himself on all four of his paws and positioned himself in front of Bella. "Yep! We'll definitely find her!"

Golbi was the next to arrive at the door, but didn't say a word nor did he even look at the big owl.

"Thanks, you three! I wish you the best of luck!" The Noctowl said with new-found hope.

After waving goodbye one last time, Bella, Sam and Golbi left the library behind to go and start their first adventure, be it a little one.

"This is going to be fun!" Bella whispered underneath her breath, barely capable of hiding her excitement.

* * *

This was hopeless.

They searched all around town and asked every Pokémon they came across for Tooty. No one however has seen the Hoothoot. They have searched until dawn before starting to give up and heading back home.

Personally she didn't wanted to stop the search, but it was getting dark and she doubted that they would find her during the night. Sam and Golbi didn't took it as hard as she did. They didn't had any objections when she suggested that they should continue to look for Tooty tomorrow.

Her heart felt heavy when they approached the big arc. She promised Noctowl that they would find his daughter, but here she was, giving up. She really hoped she could make up for it by resting the night and find her tomorrow. Much to her disliking though, they encountered two Pokémon she really never wanted to run into ever again once they reached the wooden arc.

"You two!" She yelled out angry when she recognized the two purple Pokemon.

Wherever the two were heading, they stopped pursuing that goal to see who yelled at them. When the purple cat, who she recalled was named Pelly, saw her, she began to chuckle.

"Oh look, it is the little girl!" She spoke in a snarky voice, "How is that eye of yours, I really hope it got better."

"Yeah, yeah! Better, better, heheh." The Scorupi threw in as well.

Rage was fuming up inside of her. She would love to somehow teach the two a lesson, but she knew that she wasn't strong enough to fight them which meant that she had to endure their mocking comments...

"Did you come back for more, little girl?" She rose her paw over her mouth to soften a chuckle, "If yes, then you are stupider than I imagined!"

"Yeah, yeah! Stupid, stupid, like that feather ball earlier!" Scorupi said at a rapid pace.

Wait, feather ball? Did they mean...?

"Do you mean Tooty? What did you do to her?!" Tooty might've not been a close friend, however she knew her well enough to get angry at these two if they did anything to her!

"Oh, we told her-" The Scorupi wanted to answer her but a small kick against his head performed by Pelly silenced him.

"I don't see how this is of your concern, little girl." The purple cat instead continued.

"Answer me!" She tried to sound as threatening as possible, but instead sounded like a screeching Zubat.

"Or what?" Pelly chuckled gracefully, "I can't quite recall our last meeting, would you be so kind to remind me, Scorupi?"

"We beat her up, Pell-!" He caught himself mid sentence by putting his stingers over his mouth when Pelly gazed at him with a frightening glare. After recollecting himself he finished the sentence, "Purrloin! Yeah, yeah!"

"Well, she's not alone this time!" Bella noticed Sam stepping up next to her. He didn't even knew her for a day, neither about the story the three were having and yet he stood up for her. Bella smiled at his selflessness. That's right! This time she was not alone!

"Oh?" The cat's smile disappeared for a second and she cocked an eyebrow when she notice the two other Pokémon besides Bella.

"Looky here, it seems that you brought your friends this time around." She said unimpressed.

Pelly walked up to Sam and began to circle him, flicking her tail at his nose what caused him to sneeze.

"A little, fragile rodent and a big, dumb rock, how very fitting." Pelly spat after fully surveying Bella's companions.

"Stop pestering my friends, Pelly!" She yelled at her. She would endure all the abuse, all the talk about her weakness, but nobody, nobody was going to insult her new friends!

The Purrloin stared at her perplex. She closed in on Bella and placed her right paw on her chest while directly staring into her eyes.

"Who told you that you could call me that?!" She screamed at Bella irate, her voice now much louder and harder then before.

Bella answered her stare with one of her own. "Nobody, you stupid-"

_Whack! _The cat scratched Bella right over her right eye. She cried out when the claw made contact, the pain amplified by her already existing injury. Next, Pelly stood up on her back-legs and pushed Bella over with her front-paws. She then leaned over the floored Buneary with her now bipedal stature, showing off her claws.

"You think you're tough, huh?! I'm going to show you just how tough you really are, you little wimp!"

The cat lunged at her with both of her claws at once. Bella raised her arms in the hopes that they would block the cats incoming attack. Oh, why did she do that? No... No! She did the right thing! Standing up to those two bullies and telling them out on it was something that had to be done. She didn't care if she was going to endure more of their abuse for this and so she braced herself for the incoming impact.

**WHAM!**

But the impact never came. Instead, a big fist made out of rock flew past her face, hitting the cat straight on her snout. Pelly flew through the air for a couple of seconds before she slammed face first into one of the wooden poles of the arc, stopping her flight prematurely. She then fell down on the ground motionless with a loud thud. It wouldn't take an expert to tell that she was going to be out cold for a while.

Bella blinked a couple of times at the unconscious cat before looking back to see Golbi behind her, his fist extended above her. Looking back in front of her she saw Sam offering her a paw. With happy smile, she accepted it and he pulled her back on her feet.

"Thanks, guys." She faintly said, the wetness in her eyes revealing to her that she was at the verge of tears.

"No problem!" Sam joyfully said.

She rubbed the salty water out of her eyes. This was no time for crying! She drew her attention at the purple scorpion who was nervously fidgeting around, in a battle of morals to either run away or stay with the Purrloin.

"Now tell me where Tooty is!" She demanded of the twitching bug. The Scorupi placed his stubby arms over his head and cowered on the ground.

"Please don't hurt me! Please, please!" The scorpion gibbered even faster then before, making it hard for Bella to keep track of what he was saying.

"Just tell me where she is and nothing will happen to you." She reassured him, this time with a lot less force behind her voice. She'd figured that scaring the Scorupi wouldn't bring her any answers.

"Itwasn'tmyidea! I swear, I swear!" His voice didn't slow down, though. In fact, she believed that he talked even faster, so fast, that it actually impressed her.

"Scorupi, please, just calm down and tell me where Tooty is." Her voice was almost soothing as she tried to calm down the scorpion.

"W-W..." He looked up from underneath one of his trembling arms, "We met her over at the crossroad and she asked us if we knew a location of some old ruins and then Pelly said 'Sure!' and then she directed her somewhere where definitely no old ruins are as joke and- and – and-"

His voice was still zooming but at least Bella was able to understand what he was saying this time.

"Where did she send Tooty, Scorupi?" Bella knelt down before him, slowly so she wouldn't accidentally scare the scorpion.

He lifted his other arm, revealing both of his oval eyes. "Y-you swear you won't get mad?"

Bella nodded. "I swear."

"S-She sent her to..." Scorupi gulped heavily before proceeding. "Root Cave."

Bella jumped up from where she was keeling, every muscle in her body tensing up in shock.

"D-Did you just say Root Cave?!"


	3. Chapter 3: Wrestling through Roots

**Chapter 3**

**Wrestling through Roots**

"Waaaaaaah, you said you wouldn't get mad!" The Scorupi quickly pressed his arms back onto his eyes.

Bella was concerned with other things than to not scare the scorpion. This was bad, this was really bad! Root Cave was filled to the brim with bad Pokémon, someone like Tooty wouldn't stand a chance against them! Her heartbeat accelerated as she began to panic inside. What should she do? What could she do?

"Uhm," Sam pulled her out of her panic attack by speaking up, "what's Root Cave?"

"I-Its a really dangerous place beneath the Pillar Woods!" Bella hesitatingly answered him, "All sorts of nasty Pokémon call it their home. During this time of the year a big Paras colony also lives down there and they're known to be very hostile! I-I-I," She tried to gulp down the heavy lump inside of her throat, with little success, "I don't even want to know what they could do to Tooty!"

"Alright then," Sam twirled one of his little arms as if he was warming up for a fight, "let's go and save her!"

Bella stared at him speechless. He didn't just suggest that they should go there, did he?!

"Are you serious?! Do you have any idea how dangerous that Cave is? Even adventurers tend to skip it, especially when the Paras are down there!" She said shocked.

"Do you have a better idea?" He simply harrumphed.

A better idea? She thought about that question for a while. They could go and ask some adventurers on the street to help them or maybe put up a assignment on the Bulletin Board. But with all of those Paras that currently resided in there she doubted that anybody would take the job. On top of that was it getting late and less and less Pokémon roamed the streets who they could ask.

As much as she hated to admit it, Sam was probably right. The only way to ensure Tooty's safety quickly enough was by going on their own. She took a couple of deep breaths after she realized this. Their little adventure suddenly turned into a big gone.

She tried to canalize as much bravery as possible before she said these next words. She was going to regret this.

"Erm, what about me?" Scorupi asked just before she was about to talk, his arms slightly hovering above his head.

Bella grumbled annoyed. This Scorupi was getting on her nerves! She got him in her sight and sharpened her voice. "You go and tell your friend to never trick someone ever again!"

The purple scorpion nodded ferociously. "Understood, understood!" He then crawled over to the still unconscious cat and poked her slightly with his tail.

"Pelly, never trick someone else ever again!" He waited a few seconds and when he didn't got an answer he repeated the sentence.

The Buneary shook her head. He was probably going to be busy for a while. She turned her face back to Sam who still was anticipating her response. After taking another deep breath to help her say those next few words fast before she got second thoughts, she began to blurt them out. She really was going to regret this.

"Okay, let's go to Root Cave!"

* * *

"This way!" Bella led Sam and Golbi through a overgrown path. She hoped that this was the correct way.

"Finding the Pillar Woods is pretty easy." She explained to the two while hiking through the woods without even getting asked to do so, "Simply follow the imposing trees that stand in the distance!"

For some reason she began to teach the two about how to find the Root Cave. She told them about the trees that had to look out for and which clearings they needed to pass. It made her feel nice and maybe even a bit complacent to know something someone else didn't.

"The entrance is somewhat hidden between a wall of bushes and trees right at the borders of the Pillar Woods." She turned her head so she faced Sam to make sure he was even listening. His facial features were luckily showing interest into what she was saying. Taking this to fuel her self-assurance she resumed her explanation.

"That it is at the border and not inside the woods is a good thing, otherwise it could happen that some wild Pokémon would attack us even before we reach the cave."

"The cave itself was actually created by the trees of the Pillar Woods! The long roots of the ginormous trees shoved so much dirt around that it created a big tunnel-system."

"Boy, you sure do know a lot, Bella." Sam said in awe.

Her face blushed under her fur from his compliment. It felt a bit weird having someone praising her other then her mother, but it was a kind of weirdness that also felt pretty good.

"It's just something I happened to catch up." She mumbled sheepishly.

Bella never actually visited these places personally, but instead heard about it from some visitors of Flow Town. A little tingle was rising inside her belly. Being able to finally see of what she had heard so much made her feel thrilled.

"There!" She called out as she pushed aside a bushy twig. Right in front of them laid a little ledge erected by the roots of the massive trees from the Pillar Woods. Inside the ledge the roots also formed a big passage that led into the depths of the Root Cave.

Well, at least the entrance was supposed to be big, but the gnarled roots only left a couple of small holes, through which only a equally small Pokémon could crawl.

Bella frowned confused when she saw the unimpressive ledge."I don't get this, there was supposed to be a huge cave here!"

Great, she misled them! She put one of her fluffy ear tips into her mouth and munched on it nervously. At this rate they would never find Tooty in time.

"Whe nheed twoh pfindh theh rheal enthprance!" She exclaimed, her mouth still stuffed with her creamy fur.

Sam stepped forward and climbed up to one of the holes to get a better view of what lies behind them.

"I dunno," he said dubious, "this looks like it's going pretty deep. You sure this isn't the place?"

Her ear flopped back out of her mouth as she led go of it. She was sure that she followed the directions the adventurers gave her pretty accurately, yet this here wasn't the same huge cave entrance they all were talking about, even if one would remove all the roots. It couldn't be!

Unless... They were all just exaggerating...?

"I... I don't know..." She hung her head low, "I never was here before, you know? I just always heard that this place was supposed to take your breath away..."

"Hey, don't sweat it!" Sam jumped off the root he was clinging to and walked over to Bella. He placed one of his tiny paws on her shoulder to console her, "You brought us here, didn't you? Now we can go and save Tooty, so lets not if worry about the stupid cave being big or not!"

She slightly smiled and nodded. Saving Tooty was their number one goal and not sightseeing. Bella herself now walked over to one of the many holes inside the ledge. They were all pretty small, but Sam and she should have no problems crawling through them. Golbi on the other hand...

Bella bit on her tongue as she tried to guess how wide the hole was. She took a measurement of it with her arms and walked over to Golbi, her arms still extended. When she arrived she placed her arms on Golbi. They barely covered a third of his broad body.

"I don't think Golbi is able to squeeze through one of those holes." She concluded after her little experiment.

"Then I guess he just has to wait outside." Sam boldly suggested.

This was bad. The cave would be a challenge even if the three of them went together. But especially without Golbi their chances of saving Tooty were slim. Very, very slim. She didn't wanted to leave him alone, but looking at those massive roots she doubted even Golbi would be able to move them. And even if he could, every second they would spend outside here with weeding could be a second in which something horrible happens to Tooty.

There were objections inside her mind, begging her to get help from somewhere, find another way in or just give up on the whole thing. But she had set her mind, Sam and she had to go inside the cave without Golbi.

"Golbi," She spoke to the mute Golem, "I need you to wait her until we come back out of that cave, okay?"

The Golem stared at her blankly. Oh, if she could just read this strange rocks mind.

"Let's go. Sam!"

Without wasting much time she jogged over to one of the holes, the Sentret following her closely. She began to crawl into one of the many openings, into the darkness that laid ahead. Her head turned around to get one last glimpse of Golbi. He stood in silence, his glowing eyes however staring directly into hers. She hoped that he was going to be okay, but hoped more so that they would be okay without him.

* * *

Sam and Bella transcended further and further into the dark cave. A few meek sunbeams that were somehow able to struggle through the entangled root ceiling lighted the passage they took. Beyond the entrance the cave system was way more broad. It still was nowhere near enough to fit a Onyx inside, but both of them were at least able to stand up straight. She wondered if the tight tunnels where the real reason so many adventurers tend to skip this place.

Bella tried to stay as close to her friend as possible to not lose him at the next corner of this winding tunnel. That was harder as one might consider as he constantly ran ahead on all four of his paws.

The wood beneath their feet emitted dull sound whenever they made contact. These tunnels impressed her greatly. It wasn't like that this place was just a simple stony cave, no, the whole tunnel was made out of roots! She couldn't find a single speck of earth beneath her feet, probably even if she would try her hardest to look for some!

"Hey, you coming?" The Buneary heard Sam call out to her.

"H-huh?" She hadn't noticed that she stopped when examining the amazing tunnel they were in.

"Sorry," She apologized as she picked up the pace again, "I'm just really fascinated by this tunnel. I mean, we are currently underneath a huge forest and this here was created by it over hundreds of years!"

Her eyes always sparked up just at the mere thought of this places beauty. To be finally able to see it herself was almost overwhelming.

"They just look like a couple of roots to me." Sam said when he looked at one of the roots more closely.

"Just look like a couple of roots?" She couldn't believe his narrow outlook, "They form a giant tunnel system! How can you say that they just look like a couple of roots!"

"Well, they just do!" He replied, amplifying his own voice to match the increased volume of Bella.

This was something she wanted to experience her entire life, how was he able to act like this was nothing special?!

"They don't! They're-!"

Her voice got caught within her mouth and her entire body froze when her ears suddenly captured a few rustles that echoed through the tunnels somewhere in the distance behind them. Sam apparently heard it too as his head turned cautiously towards the tunnel behind them.

She hold her breath to not tell whoever made those sounds that she was here. After what felt like an eternity, the rustling stopped and there was pure silence again. She almost wanted to exhale the pent up carbon inside her body in relieve but tensed up again when the rustling came back. And it was getting louder. And it sounded like there was more rustling than before!

"Run!" Sam shouted.

He didn't had to tell her that twice! She ran as fast as her little legs allowed her. Small twigs that stuck out of the roots slapped her face and left a stinging pain, but she couldn't care less about it. She praised Sam for his long tail or otherwise she would've lost him every time a junction came up. They ran so far into the Root Cave that she couldn't remember at all how many turns they took, how many tunnels they ran down, meaning that even if they outrun their pursuers, they would be completely lost inside this cave.

After a few unbearable minutes of nonstop running the roots around them began to part, forming the size of what she would consider a normal size for a cave. Out of nowhere Sam abruptly stopped, making her run headfirst into him, causing both of them to stumble into a heap. In the chaos, Sam somehow managed to land on top of her.

"Oooooh..." Bella groaned because of the weight the Sentret body was exerting on her.

"Why did you stop?" She asked while she tried to shove Sam down from her.

Thankfully Sam lifted himself from her body, taking her burden of doing so herself, however he pressed his paws into her belly, causing her to groan once again.

"'Cause this is a dead end."

Her eyes opened wide when Sam mentioned 'dead end'. She frantically searched around the room for some exit beside the one they entered from. Much to her horror, Sam appeared to be right. The roots all knot together at the very end of the cave and they did not leave any space anywhere unrooted. They laid so narrow to each other that only a single ray of light managed to pass through, giving them barely any visibility of the somewhat larger cave part.

Her whole body heated up causing her fur to get sweaty. They were trapped and now at the mercy of whatever was chasing them. It didn't took the rustling long to catch up with them. Three orange insects with mushrooms growing out of their back emerged from the entrance, their slender legs scurrying over the roots.

"Looks like we gotta fight them!" Sam anxiously jumped in front of her into a battle pose on all four of his paws, as if he was eager to leap at their chaser.

"B-b-but there's three of them!" Bella gibbered in fear. There was no way Sam would be able to beat them! He was just a little Sentret and still wounded on top of that! Granted, the Paras weren't any bigger them him, but he was outnumbered!

He turned his head to Bella and gave her a cocky smile. "Guess I have to fight three times as good then!"

While Sam tried to act cool one of the Paras took the chance of him not paying attention and leaped forward.

"L-look out!" Bella still managed to scream before the incoming attack.

With blinding speed the Sentret ducked under the insects claw. His fast reflexes did not only caught Bella off guard but also the Paras as it tripped over his huddled form. Without hesitating he flung the orange insect right back over his head using his striped tail, hitting one of the other Paras with it. The third enemy attempted to hit Sam, but he jumped with ease on his back and smashed it with its tail strong enough to knock it out. The other two Paras had recovered themselves and now attacked the Sentret at the same time from two different angles. As they lunged forward, Sam, swift like a bolt, leaped into the air, letting the two crash into one another. Instead of simply landing on his paws again, he skillfully turned inside the air and slammed his body into the pile of orange bugs, knocking out the two still conscious ones.

After reassuring that the Paras no longer were a threat by kicking their unconscious body's, he hopped off of them, slowly walked over to Bella who was still laying on the ground and offered her a paw the second time this day.

The Buneary was so shocked that she didn't even registered Sam's offer. Her mind was still back at the fight. H-he was so fast! She can call herself lucky that her eyes even register more than half of the moves he performed!

"Hello~, earth to Bella!" Sam waved his right paw over her face to pull her back into reality.

Bella snapped out of it but still didn't took hold of the paw that was wiggling in front of her eyes.

"H-how..." She shook her head just to double check that she didn't just imagine thinks. Nope, the three unconscious Paras still were there, "How did you do that?!"

"They weren't very smart so they were a peace of cake! Mmh, I could go for some cake right now!" He answered, his head instantly in clouds at the mere thought of baked goods.

"How can you be hungry again? You already ate a bowl filled with berries and a big apple!"

"Well, I need to grow bigger somehow!" He joked, crossing his arms as if he was taking himself serious, but a little smirk on his face betrayed his real attentions.

He was acting so casual, childish and even a bit adorable despite the situation that she couldn't help but laugh. It put her mind off Sam's incredible ability, which was probably his goal anyways.

"Want to go on?" Sam asked, "Or do you need a moment to rest?"

She shook her head. "Nah, we really need to get going, I want to be back out of this cave before it gets dark."

She stood up by her own and both walked back the way they came, past the mountain of knocked out Paras. Looking over the mess that Sam made gave her confidence that they might actually be able to save Tooty. No, that was wrong. It gave her confidence that Sam is able to save Tooty and she was only going to slow him down...

* * *

They were completely lost! Every hallway, every twist and every turn, everything looked the same! When they went right they could've sworn they already been here, when they went left it generally was a dead end and when they turned around they weren't sure that this was the way they came from.

Luckily, they learned how to avoid any further contact with the Paras. They walked quietly, only spoke in hushes and whenever a rustling was heard, they turned around back from where they came and tried a different passage.

Bella broke off a little twig reaching out of the ground with her foot in frustration. How should they be able to help Tooty out of this chaos when they couldn't even remember where the exit was? The rays of light that illuminated their way grew dimmer and dimmer with every passing moment they stayed inside this cave, declaring that the day was coming to an end.

Sam let out a load yawn, infecting Bella to have one of her own. The constant walking in this giant tangled mess of a cave tired their bodies out. On top of it was she growing peckish. She tried to muffle her growling stomach with her paws but it was to no avail. The grumble of her stomach was so loud that it resonated off the wooden walls making her blush embarrassed.

"Also hungry?" Sam giggled which amplified the intensity of her glowing cheeks.

"Yeah..." She sat down and leaned her back on the curved wall.

Her flushed face disappeared and was replaced with a crestfallen expression. The cold night air pressed through the gaps in the whole tunnel, stealing away the already pretty cool air. She shuddered when a sudden breeze blew by from below one of the many tunnels. Wait, a breeze?...

A glimpse of hope formed in her mind. Maybe the tunnel from which the breeze came from led to an exit? But even if it did, they still haven't found Tooty and who knows if it even was the right exit and not one that would end them up in the middle of the Pillar Woods.

She sighed winded. They were tired, hungry, cold and lost. Bella slapped herself mentally for not getting anything for preparation like rations or, more importantly, remedies. What would've happened when Sam had wounded himself while fighting the Paras? She couldn't even picture the consequences!

"I think we should better rest." Bella recommend, thinking it was for the best.

Her eyes grew weary. She curled up both her ears and tucked her head into her fluffy fur on her bottom to warm her up. The roots she leaned against were hard and her cream-colored fur only helped partly to keep the cold air out. What she wouldn't give to be back home in her bed. She slowly closed her eyes, not caring if something dangerous could come their way. Right now, everything she wanted to do was sleep.

She heard how Sam toddled up and down while rubbing his hide, who was suddenly aware of the chilly air. "It's p-pretty cold."

He was right, it was a lot colder than it normally should be, even outside without any walls protecting yourself. The Buneary wondered in her dozy state if maybe the roots where absorbing all the warmth, but quickly dismissed it as silly. The roots themselves also had no warmth to them, in fact, they almost felt dead in a way. Strange...

"Hey, B-Bella?" Sam stuttered clearly freezing despite his fur.

She opened one of her sleepy eyes to look the shivering Sentret.

"Yeah?" She said, snuggling herself deeper into her cozy fur.

"C-can I h-huddle up into your fur a-as w-well?" His jittering lips curled into a little smile, "Y-you look p-pretty warm there."

Did he...? What?!

Her ears rolled out and eyes flew open. Her whole head turned bright crimson when she saw Sam's expecting smile. H-Huddling up into her fur? W-w-was he serious?! Even in her thoughts was she stumbling over words out of sheer embarrassment.

"S-So, can I?" Her friend did not desist his idea the slightest and was even nearing in on her.

Bella's heart beat like wild inside her chest. She pulled her fur over her face to hide her glowing face from Sam's view. Her whole body heated up so much that she completely forgot about the frosty air.

"N-no..." She managed to say through her wooly fur. Why was he being so stupid?!

"C-come on, I-I'm freezing over h-here!"

He was getting dangerously close now. When in reach, she stretched one of her feet to keep his body off of her.

"I said no!"

They shoved each other back and forth until a low rumble in the distance interrupted their quarrel. Both froze on the spot and their ears perked up. It was impossible to tell where the rumbling came from, however it definitely was far away. Bella let the tension back out of her body. After a hearty sigh a strange glow that wasn't there before coming from the end of the rooty hallway, right around a corner, caught her attention.

"Sam, look!" She pointed at the navy light so he would notice.

The Sentret looked at where her paw suggested. The light pulsated intensely, impossible to overlook. How did she or Sam miss it before?

"What's that?" He asked

"I dunno." She answered just as clueless, "You think it's more Paras?"

"There's only one way to find out!"

"W-wait, you don't want to-?"

Oh yes, he did. Without any precautions he boldly stepped up to the pulsating light. The brown Sentret walked far enough around the corner and stopped until there was nothing left to see of him but his tail.

Why did he stop? She really didn't wanted to run into any more danger but curiosity got the better of her and she jumped back on her feet in order to walk over to her friend. _Oh please let this not be another flock of Paras!_

Bella reached the end of the corridor, peeked around the corner and behind it her partner gazed awestruck at the light. Surprised by his reaction she dared to look over his shoulder. What she saw was possibly the most beautiful thing her eyes ever laid upon.

Her mouth began to hung open wide. In front of her the roots departed and finally ended to show a cave made out of dirt. Inside this cave a vast amount of navy blue glowing mushrooms grew, nearly covering every last inch of the ground and walls. More than half of them towered her by a treble! The air itself was filled with small spheres shining in the same blue as the mushrooms, illuminating the place the their color.

Amazed, she touched one of the fungi. When her paw made contact the mushroom began to shake, spreading even more glowing orbs from its insides. She sneezed when a couple of the spores flew into her nose, creating a whirlwind of twinkling lights. Looking at her paw she noticed how a blue paste was sticking on it now. Having no object or place to wipe it off on, she decided to just leave it there.

"And who... might you be?" Bella jumped when she heard a sluggish voice resonating out of the fungus forest. From between the giant mushrooms one of them suddenly began to move. The major difference that this mushroom had, compared to the others, was its red color with yellow blotches dispersed across it. Oh, it also had a giant, orange bug carrying it.

She gasped, appalled at its sight. It looked like a Paras, only three times as big. The giant mushroom covered the insects back and its glassy eyes just barely peeking out from underneath it. The huge bug slowly came closer, those silvery eyes staring through her body.

"Hey, no step closer, creep!"

Sam leaped between Bella and the overgrown mushroom-bug, snarling as best as he could. The only sound that left from between her partners teeth however was a cute squeak that faintly reminded the Buneary of a toy of hers.

The living fungus stopped his progress. "Oh... sorry for... spooking you." Its voice sounded rather nice for such a creepy looking creature, albeit it spoke like it had trouble forming sentences.

"It's just... hard for me... to tell... how someone looks... from afar."

Bella noticed how it wasn't focusing anything with its eyeballs. Was it... blind?

"You're not fooling us!" Sam snarled at the orange bug some more, "Three of you already attacked us earlier!"

The insect shook its head ashamed. "That must've... been the... bearers... They are... always so... over-protective... of us."

"Bearers...?" Bella muttered confused. What did he meant by bearers?

"But enough... talk for now." The talking mushroom turned around and reached between some of the fungi with its claws, "You sound... tired and... hungry."

It retrieved two red roots and offered them to the two. Bella examined the plant warily. It had small hunches all over it and was covered with dirt. It looked... unappetizing to put it nice.

"Just break it... open and... eat the insides." It handed, or clawed, them the two roots. Hesitant both Sam and Bella accepted the present. She did as the big fungus explained and broke it into two pieces. Pearly white juices emerged from the root and ran down its side and into her fur. She took a good sniff of the leaking pulp inside the red root. Bitter.

Her gaze went over to Sam who apparently had the same worries as she did. The bunny almost wanted to decline the treat, but a loud rumble from inside her stomach reminded her that she hadn't eaten for what felt like ages.

With an faltering shrug she took a small bite out of the root. She tried her best to keep the stuff off her tongue to not taste it. Sadly, little chunks managed to get their way through, and the taste was... not too bad, actually!

Baffled she looked down at the leaking root. Though still mostly bitter, it had a unique flavor to it that filled her body with new vigor. A tingle ran through her body when her limbs one after another began to wake up again. Greedily she ate the rest the root had to offer. Loud munching to her left revealed to her that Sam must've also discovered this roots amazing attributes.

When she was done sucking out the last bit of the juicy white stuff from the root she dropped the red skin that was left over and stretched her now energized body.

"Wowy, what's inside this thing?" She heard Sam say. He jumped up and down, as if he had too much energy to spent now.

"Oh... just some of... the roots that... certain Pillar trees... grow during this... time of the year." The big paras answered with a faint smile. He opened his mouth again to say something but it was cut short by another rumbling, louder than the one from before.

It shook its head and frowned melancholy. "What now?... First the trees... of the Pillar Woods... start dying... and now this!"

Bella's ears perked up when it mentioned dying trees. Is something bad happening to the forest? "Wait, what do you mean the trees are dying? What happened to them?"

"If I'd... only know... Tree by tree... the forest slowly... dies... Maybe because of... the raising number... of bad Pokémon,... or maybe because... the forests time... just has come..." The walking mushroom sighed depressed, "The bearers need... the trees roots... to feed themselves... and us. Without... these roots I... will fear the... worst."

A stinging pain shot into her heart when she looked down at the remnants of the roots she and Sam just eaten. Did it gave them some very important nourishments they needed?

"Don't worry... about these roots,... young one... You two... needed them more... than us." The big insect quickly said, conscious of Bella's troubled mind.

"Tell me though,..." The bug looked at Bella directly despite its lack of an iris, "what are... two small Pokèmon... like you doing... here all alone... in a dangerous... place like this?"

"We are looking for a friend!" The Buneary answered, "Have you seen her? She's looks like a small feathery ball."

"Small feathery ball?..." The fungus Pokémon repeated, "I recall having... talked to something... that might resemble... that... A really... impatient and bold... one that was!"

Bella's spirit lightened up at his description. "That's her! Do you know where she is now?"

"Of course..." He pointed towards an entrance to his right. "Right this way... She was a... smart one... that little... feathery ball... She used... the mushrooms pollen... to mark the... path she took... Just follow... the glow... and you should... find her."

"Thank you so much!" The Buneary was practically beaming with joy, "Now I at least know that nothing has happened to her!"

The fungus shook its head with a grave expression. "I told the... bearers to not... attack her... but in these... caves a lot of... bad Pokémon reside... She could be... still in danger."

"Then we'd better hurry!" Sam, who decided to sit on one of the glowing mushrooms while the two were talking, jumped back onto his feet.

"Right!" Bella balled her paws into fists and pressed them on her chest so showcase her own confidence.

"Thank you again, uhm..." She pondered about what to call this strange mushrooms.

"Just call me... Parasect." he waved one of his claws dismissively, "I don't... need a proper... name."

"Okay, thank you, Parasect!"

Before she turned around to follow Tooty's markings she asked Parasect a question that she had on her mind since she heard Parasect first say it.

"Hey Parasect, uhm..." she pondered on how ask this question, but decided to just directly say it, "why do you call the Paras 'beares'?"

The bug just chuckled. "Oh, don't... worry about that... for now." Her waved with his claws, gesturing her to leave, "You go now... and save your... friend."

Frowning at his disappointing answer she waved him goodbye and finally pursued the promise she made Noctowl. They were going to rescue Tooty, no matter what!

* * *

Sam and Bella followed the glowing pollen that Tooty had left behind for a while now. She reached quite the distance! But it was no problem, the roots that Parasect has given the two had awaken such incredible stamina inside of Bella that she easily was capable of following Sam. It wouldn't been too hard to rediscover him anyways when she would lose him because the mushroom he sat on earlier made his backside glow brightly, much to her amusement.

It rumbled again, louder this time, making Bella nervous. What was this menacing sound when not more Paras and why was it getting closer? Did she really wanted to know?

"Hey Bella, keep up the pace!" Sam shouted at the worried Buneary.

She took a last glimpse at the direction of the rumbling, but nodded and continued to follow the marked trail. The path Tooty took preferred the direction in which the wood that surrounded them began to loose more color and the air grew even colder. Of course, the Hoothoot absolutely had to take the creepiest way possible, didn't she? Any other noises besides their footsteps and the eventual rumbling in the distance, that might have resound in these caves, disappeared. Was this one the dying places that Parasect has mentioned? It certainly felt that way...

The tunnel once again parted and entered another big cave, bigger than any of the previous once they encountered. Looking up she noticed that the reason why it appeared to be more spacious was because they directly stood underneath a gigantic tree. It was absolutely amazing! The tree got lifted off the ground just by its own roots, making no contact with any form of dirt at all. The underside of the tree was filled with mushrooms, these however were all brown and wrinkled, probably dead, except one. It was lusciously green compared to the rest of them and rather strangely formed with two red growth sticking out of it.

"The markings end here!" Sam walked into the middle of the room and poked the last glowing splotch of mushroom pollen with his feet, "Does this mean that Tooty's around?"

"I guess..." Bella didn't give Sam much attention, but instead kept the mysterious green mushroom in her vision.

"Okay then," The Sentret took a deep breath and then began to scream obnoxiously loud, "HEY TOOTY, YOU HERE?!"

The intensity of his voice got amplified by the hollow cave, causing her and even the mushroom to cringe. Her ears rang a bit- Wait, what?!

The mushroom was moving! In fact, it was lifting itself off the ceiling, showing a white face with a menacing frown on it. Looking closely it was actually some strange bipedal Pokémon that held onto the the tree with some sharp, red claws. It suddenly let go of the tree and dropped directly towards Sam. There was no time to warn him. Even with his incredible speed he couldn't dodge this Pokémon in time. So instead she leaped forward and threw her friend out off the way. Her bravery got rewarded with a crushing punch to the back of her head.


End file.
